Locals weigh in on financial bailout

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) - President Bush has laid out a government plan to bailout the American financial system, and the dollars he's using, belong to you.

The idea is to take bad mortgages and other debts off the books of troubled financial institutions. The details are to be worked out over the weekend in meetings between Bush Administration officials and Congressional lawmakers.

Some estimates say the bailout could cost taxpayers close to a half a trillion dollars.

Stocks rallied on the strength of the bailout announcement, Friday saw a second straight day of strong gains across the markets.

Top executives in the State of Michigan are gathered in Grand Rapids for an economic convention this week, Newschannel 3 caught up with some of them and got their reaction to the news, as well as the reaction of some local taxpayers.

There's some anger that bad loans created this mess in the first place, and now it appears that taxpayers like Chad Morrow are going to have to pick up the tab for it.

"If you can't have the foresight to see we're selling an individual that doesn't have the means to comply with making his payments, I think you're doing yourself and society a disservice," Morrow, a high school teacher, said.

The US Government is about to buy up all those bad loans. Lax lending practices for home mortgages, especially sub-prime loans were given to borrowers with bad credit when times were good, but those practices now have millions of people either delinquent on their payments or in foreclosure.

"We cannot have an economic crisis in this country," said Representative Peter Hoekstra, "if we have a crisis we will pay in a whole lot of other ways."

Congressman Hoekstra will likely be voiting on the bailout reform sometime in the next week, he says he expects both Democrats and Republicans to ultimately approve it.

"We want to send a message to the investment community and to the world that this is something that brings Republicans and Democrats together," Hoeskstra said, "brings us together with the administration. This is a long term, consistent strategy."

While Hoekstra thinks it's a good investment, other top state leaders aren't sold on it.

"I think the corporations or the lenders who made bad decisions because they thought they'd make a huge profit, by and large they should pick up the loss, not the taxpayers," said Michigan's Attorney General Mike Cox.

Ultimately some feel that taxpayers are going to be forced to pay now or pay more later, perhaps this move could be saving jobs.

"I'm afraid to wake up tomorrow morning and see other companies going bankrupt or filing for bankruptcy," said Chad Morrow.